TEDxHelsinkiUniversity 2018 lineup

TEDxHelsinkiUniversity 2018 event will happen on May 11 at Tiedekulma (Yliopistonkatu 4, Helsinki). The full speaker lineup is shown below:

ROIE GALITZ

Roie’s greatest passions, nature and photography, take him into the wild. As an adventurous wildlife photographer he travels in extreme conditions to the most remote places on earth capturing images of rarely seen animals in their natural habitats. He believes that a unique perspective - both in photography and in life - can actualize any vision. His lifelong mission is to take pictures that were never taken before through which he is able to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues. Roie’s capturing photographs have garnered great exposure worldwide, most recently featured in the BBC's Snow Bears film, aired in Christmas 2017.

JUUSO KEKKONEN

Juuso Kekkonen is a comedian and a writer who combines personal and political themes into touching, educational, and empowering stories. Before making his living from public speaking and comedy, he worked in a science centre as an edutainer. Juuso is most known for his show “Queer homo”, an award-winning autobiographical story, in which he speaks about sexual experiences and search for happiness. His favorite topics include: human sexuality, gender, taboos, climate change, futurology, death, evolution, and brain.

JAAKKO KUOSMANEN

Jaakko Kuosmanen works as a senior advisor at Demos Helsinki. He received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and has previously worked at the Council of Europe. Apart from teaching MSc in Public Policy students at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, Jaakko has lectured at various universities around the world on public policy, government innovation, international law and global justice. Jaakko’s work focuses on the design of long-term oriented governing institutions and he also provides consultancy for governments. He believes that innovation begins from incremental changes, and that in the future it will be the new normal.

TUULIKKI LAES

Tuulikki Laes is a musician, educator, researcher, and an entrepreneur who believes that music and arts are powerful sources of change in our society and within ourselves. Tuulikki works in a multidisciplinary research initiative ArtsEqual coordinated by the University of Arts in Helsinki where she investigates the role of music and arts education in the advancement of general well-being and equality. She is also the founder and CEO of RockHubs Oy, a company that aims to build accessible, intergenerational music learning communities in urban environments.

VISA-PEKKA OSKARI MERTANEN

Visa-Pekka is a professional musician, composer, arranger, and producer. He leads his own jazz-fusion band Visa Oscar Group, tours with the Afro-beat/jazz influenced Helsinki-Cotonou Ensemble, and produces electronica with groups Binary Boyz and Opera Skaala. During his career, Visa-Pekka has played keyboards in Sibis Alumni Big Band with John Scofield and Jim McNeely, written orchestral arrangements for pop/rock bands like the Sunrise Avenue, and composed two multimedia operas for Ooppera Skaala. He has also toured with Finnish bands Waldo’s People, Taikapeili, and Maija Vilkkumaa. In 2015, Visa Pekka’s co-write song and production “Heart of Light” won the third place in the the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest. In 2013, his big band composition “Balkan Express” received the third prize in the biannual Esko Linnavalli Composing Competition. Visa Oscar Group’s first album “Fusion Treatment” was released in October 17, 2015.

GONÇALO PESTANA

Gonçalo Pestana is a software engineer interested in distributed systems, security, web surveillance - and hacking! Gonçalo has done research at CERN and worked for companies in the security and banking industry. He has a Msc. degree in Software engineering from Aalto University and a Bsc. degree in Network communication engineering from Tecnico Lisboa. He believes that only a decentralised Internet can provide the foundation for a fair and free society.

INKA RANTAKALLIO

Inka is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Turku. Her dissertation focuses on hip hop, mapping the discourses of authenticity, spirituality, and atheism in the Finnish underground rap. Inka also regularly gives lectures on hip hop culture. Besides co-hosting the weekly Rap Scholar radio show on Bassoradio, she is an aspiring DJ (rap, hip hop, r&b) and journalist.

HÉLDER A. SANTOS

Dr. Hélder A. Santos is a physical chemist specialized in electrochemistry, biological mimetic models and soft interfaces. Hélder is currently an Associate Professor (tenure track) in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Head of Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology, Head of the Preclinical Drug Formulation and Analysis Group, and Director of the Doctoral Program in Drug Research at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki. He is also a Fellow Member of the recently established Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), leader of the nanomedicines and biomedical engineering group, and one of the World Portuguese Network Advisers for Science. Hélder’s research interests include the development of nanoparticles/nanomedicines for biomedical and healthcare applications.

KAMILLA SULTANOVA

Kamilla Sultanova has over 10 years’ worth of experience in influencing policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, inclusion, active citizenship and cross-cultural dialogue. Kamilla has run Global Dignity Girls & Boys NGO in Helsinki since 2015 and is a European Young Leader alumni from 2015. Being born and raised in Uzbekistan, she has lived, studied and worked in the Nordics since 2002, trying all things new to prove that gender and ethnicity is not an obstacle to live a full life. Kamilla has graduated as MA in corporate communication from Aarhus University. Today she arranges youth street art exhibits, inclusion seminars and speaker events, rewiring youth “to dream big and live the best version of themselves." Her passion is to shape humanity by building unique partnerships between public, civic and business leaders in advancing youth rights, equality, representation and 21st century skills.

HARRI VALPOLA

Harri Valpola (Ph.D.) is the CEO and founder of the Curious AI Company, which was founded in 2015. The long-term goal of the company is to develop artificial general intelligence. At the moment, the company is developing technologies for fast interactive learning and model-based control and decision making. Harri started his academic career in 1993 and has been working on machine learning, computational neuroscience, and robotics over the years. In 2007, he founded ZenRobotics Ltd., which applies machine learning in advanced robotics, currently in robotic recycling.

HANNA VÄSTINSALO

Hanna Västinsalo is a director with a PhD in molecular genetics. She represented Finland in the International Space Camp and the Biology Olympiad, studied dance in Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London before doing a PhD on the Molecular Genetics of Usher Syndrome at the University of Helsinki. Hanna's passion is to tell stories that touch people and likes to combine science, dance and Finnish folklore in stories set in past, present and the future. She received MFA in film directing from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.